The top of the Tower was starting to melt, and chunks of stone were tumbling down from the walls. Loads of mutants started popping up inside the Tower.

Everybody who lived in the Tower was racing downwards. Everyone, that is, except for Ren. He was going against the crowd. To move faster, he was pretty much running straight up the walls. Most people rushing down just felt a quick breeze pass over them. By the time they looked up, the shadowy figure who had been running on the walls was already gone, like a shooting star in the sky.

The Tower was huge, made up of different layers, and each floor was as big as a small town. Even if you used a super-fast elevator, it would still take forever to get to the top.

Suddenly, two mutants jumped out from the dark corners, blocking Ren’s way. But Ren didn’t slow down. He just kept going, his black longsword slashing one mutant down, and his red blade of blood red slicing the other one in half.

With his black military boots, he stepped over the puddles of blood, leaving behind only the fading images of the fallen mutants and the shiny flash of his sword.

Kestrel was watching all of this on a virtual screen, taking note of every single move Ren made, and even his subtle facial expressions.

Ren was definitely a very good-looking and talented warrior. The skill and balance needed to run on walls like he was doing? Simply amazing. He had really long legs, making it easy for him to jump over stuff. And when he turned to deliver a kick, he could easily send a bad guy flying through the air.

He was super handsome, too. He usually had a smile on his face when he was around Kestrel. But right now, even his serious face was pretty charming.

In Kestrel’s eyes, Ren could do absolutely no wrong. She wished more than anything that she could wait for him.

She let out a sigh. The royal palace at the top had completely melted away. So, she was basically sitting at the very peak of the Tower. The wind was getting super strong, making a loud, creepy noise in her ears, like it could blow her off at any second.

The walls around her were slowly melting and sinking into the ground. Even the stone wall she was leaning against felt like it could collapse at any moment.

Kestrel heard the distant sounds of artillery gunfire coming from the bottom of the Tower, and it just wouldn’t stop. She knew this day would happen; she had seen a glimpse of the future where tons of people would storm the Tower.

By now, she had done all she could. She destroyed the Queen’s body, broke her psychic form into pieces, and revealed all the Empire’s dirty secrets. What happened next was up to the brave alphas who had the same mission as hers. She really hoped they would find a way to pull it off and win, although it was just one chance in a million.

"Don’t worry; there are a bunch of awesome people out there."

"Don’t worry; everyone already knows what’s really going on."

"Maybe someday, life will go back to normal. You know, just hanging out with friends, grabbing some street food, and kids going to amusement parks with Ferris wheels. And we’ll all be under a sky that’s actually blue."

Kestrel looked up and saw the sky stretch out over her, like a huge sapphire blanket.

The color was so pretty, it felt like she could touch it just by reaching out her hand. Under that bright blue sky, Kestrel started to feel a bit sleepy and thought about taking a quick rest.

Just as she was about to close her eyes a little, she heard Ren’s voice coming from the opticomputer. His voice sounded scratchy, like he was worried something bad had happened.

"Kestrel? Kestrel, stay awake."

Kestrel wanted to tell him she was okay, just a bit tired and wanting to take a quick nap. But she was so worn out that when she opened her mouth, no words came out.

"Kestrel!" Ren’s voice got louder, almost like he was about to cry.

Kestrel shook herself awake, blinking her eyes to let him know she was alright.

"Don’t sleep, okay? Just listen to me," Ren said, panting as he started talking non-stop. "I’ve been learning how to make lots of desserts lately. I made those soufflés you said you liked. Oh, and I also learned how to make mochi, which is super tasty when you dip it in soybean flour. You’ve got to try it."

Ren was really out of breath, which was rare for him. Kestrel had never heard him pant like this, not even during their intense moments in Mantidale.

While he caught his breath, he kept going, "You know, Kestrel, grilled food is actually amazing; you’ve probably never had it. Also, I found a cupcake shop far away that makes these almond-flavored ones. We should go try them sometime."

"Cupcakes? That taste like almonds?" Kestrel leaned back against the cold stone wall, listening intently and even licking her lips. She started to feel more awake.

Ren’s non-stop talking mixed in with some chirping sounds of an orca.

A tendril, which had been totally still before, began to slowly move from under Kestrel’s skirt when it heard the chirps.

The tendril wriggled around, looping itself around the half-remaining stone wall behind Kestrel, and used its suckers to stick to the wall. This helped to steady her body, which was about to fall over.

Then, the next moment, with a loud crashing noise, the shaky ground under Kestrel finally gave way. Kestrel started to fall down.

Luckily, the one tendril that could still move was there, gripping the stone wall super tight. It was the only thing keeping Kestrel from falling into the pile of rubble below. She was basically hanging by a thread—or rather, a tendril.

The wind way up at the top of the Tower was crazy strong. It was blowing so hard that Kestrel, who was already pretty banged up, swayed back and forth. Below her was a really long drop, filled with chunks of broken concrete and twisted metal bars. The scary growls of mutants could be heard coming from way down there.

Given how hurt Kestrel was, falling from this high up would be a death sentence—and a really gruesome one at that.

"I’m still here," Kestrel told Ren, as she held on tightly to the wall. "Don’t freak out, I’m alive. The tendril’s got me."

On the other side of the screen, there was a short pause before Ren let out a soft "Mm-hmm." His voice sounded shaky, as if he was the one hanging for dear life, not her.

Kestrel wanted to flash Ren a smile through the screen, but the wound was making her face hurt like crazy. Smiling would probably look kinda weird right now.

The truth was, she was barely hanging on. But she didn’t dare to let go of that tendril. She couldn’t stand the thought of Ren having to see her body all smashed up if she fell.

Not wanting to even think about that nightmare, she gritted her teeth and held on. She let the weakened tendril support her weight for as long as it possibly could.

Kestrel knew that Ren had already gone through the heartbreak of losing a close friend. After that, he turned into this super gloomy and scary guy who acted like he had a death wish. But lately, he had started to turn things around and was acting happier and caring about life again.

Thinking about Ren, and remembering all the yummy foods they had talked about, gave Kestrel just enough strength to lift her arm a tiny bit and grab onto the edge of the rubble.

Her eyesight was getting blurry, but she could see on the screen that Ren seemed to have picked up a gravity gun.

He dropped to one knee, gripped the gun with both hands, and without even aiming, he pulled the trigger, firing at the Tower’s wall.

The Tower used to be this super-strong fortress for humans. It didn’t have any windows, except for one at the top. People had tried before, but no human-made weapon could break through those walls, not even an anti-gravity gun. The only way in or out was through this gigantic door at the bottom.

But now, with its bricks peeling off one by one, the Tower didn’t look unbreakable anymore. It looked like it had weak spots all over the place.

Running up the skinny stairs was definitely not gonna work anymore. The only other option was to bust through the wall and climb up from the outside of the Tower. Ren knew he had to give it a shot.

Cranking the gravity gun to full power, he aimed at the weakest spot between some holes in the wall and let it rip.

The shot itself didn’t make a sound, but the impact messed with the wall’s gravity big time. First, little cracks started showing up, then huge sections of the wall began to split open.

Out of nowhere, a killer whale’s head popped out from the void. It let out a long, loud cry and slammed right into the cracked part of the wall. Boom! The whole Tower shook. Another boom, and there was a giant hole in the wall.

Outside the Tower, bright screens were floating around, kinda like a halo.

People started to show up and set up cameras. They were streaming live, getting the epic battle inside the Empire’s Tower out to TVs all over the world.

In the video feed, another loud bang went off and the middle of the Tower blew open. It wasn’t clear what went down, but a hole was blown from the inside, and stuff like chunks of bones and rocks started falling from the high walls. An orca shot out of that hole, and there was a guy dressed in black standing on its head. He zoomed straight up to the Tower’s top.

The giant floating screen turned just in time to catch the guy, who was riding the killer whale like a surfboard, cutting through the floating images on the screens. He zipped towards the top of the Tower like a shooting star, as if he was breaking through a timeline of human history.

The cameras outside caught this awesome moment, and now it was all over people’s TVs.

Gradually, the killer whale started to look smaller and smaller in the video, going higher and higher until even the best cameras couldn’t see it. Regular folks had no idea what was happening way up there.

"Who’s that guy? What’s he doing going up there?" someone wondered out loud.

Regular people couldn’t see that far, but those with the best sight, the alphas, could.

"He’s climbing up to save someone. To rescue the beta who’s been the savior for all of us," said Brandon. He was standing near a makeshift command center they’d set up by the Tower. His eyes glowed this cool green color as he stared at the Tower’s top. He could see the peak of the Tower starting to melt away, along with the palace that had locked him up once.

The scary queen was gone for good. Everyone knew what was up now, and more people started joining in. They didn’t have to worry about being called ’rebels’ or ’traitors’ anymore.

And it seemed like all this craziness, all this change, was probably because of one person—Kestrel.

"Come on, Ren, hurry up!" Brandon whispered to himself, staring up at the super tall Tower. "You gotta move faster. Kestrel can’t hang on much longer."

Inside the Tower, Olivia took a quick breather after taking down a tough mutant. She glanced at her opticomputer screen just in time to see Ren bust through the Tower’s wall and zoom upwards.

She knew exactly who was at the top right now. She also had a pretty good idea why the Queen’s crazy strong psychic powers hadn’t kicked in—it had to be because of Kestrel, still stuck up there in the palace.

"Go get her, Ren. Get to Kestrel fast," Olivia thought.

"Go, Ren. Don’t let Kestrel be up there alone," thought Raymond.

"Go. Bring her back safe," thought Rakan.

A lot of people were silently hoping, crossing their fingers that Ren would make it to the top in time to save their friend.

Kestrel knew that Ren was flying up towards her like a madman.

She wanted to wait for him—more than she’d ever wanted anything before.

But she was totally wiped out. She’d lost too much blood; her fingers, holding onto the crumbled rocks, were going numb. Her tendrils were stretched to the max, and their suction cups were losing grip, letting go one by one.

She couldn’t hang on anymore.

Feeling heavy-hearted, Kestrel closed her eyes. Her lifeless fingers slipped off the edge of the rocks.

As she started to fall, she wished she could say to Ren, "If we both get through this, let’s see if we’re compatible. No matter what the score says, I hope you’ll come live with me."

It sounded like she was proposing, but that was cool because that’s exactly what she meant. Except she knew she wouldn’t get the chance to say it.

She was falling fast, and her mind was getting fuzzy.

Ren saw her.

Kestrel was covered in blood, hanging by a tendril from the Tower’s shaky top.

And then, watching from far away, he saw her fingers slip, and her small body fall down.

It was too late. Even if Ren sped up like crazy, he knew she’d hit the jagged rocks down below.

Her body, like a kite that got its string cut, disappeared from Ren’s view.

For just a moment, Ren’s eyes lit up with a purple glow, like he was on fire. Holding his anti-gravity gun while standing on the back of the super-fast flying whale, he shot at the Tower several times.

Even though he was going full speed, each shot was super accurate. He was aiming at key spots that held the Tower up, shooting through the little gaps in the wall.

As an alpha, Ren had crazy sharp eyesight and was a total pro with guns.

The floors started giving in, breaking apart one by one.

Kestrel was falling from the top of the Tower.

The next level’s floor cracked open. A bunch of human-made steel and other stuff started falling down, making loud crashing sounds as they hit the level below. That floor also started breaking apart even before the stuff from above could land on it.

Kestrel was falling super fast, but she didn’t hit any steel or concrete floors. She kept dropping, right along with all the falling dust and broken stuff, level by level.

Rocks and dirt were flying around like a storm. An orca flew right through the mess of tumbling stones.

Even though dirt was getting in his eyes and he was getting scraped and bleeding, Ren didn’t feel anything. His eyes were wide open, focused on all the falling rocks in front of him.

Finally, he got to Kestrel, who had been falling from way up high.

Standing on the head of the orca, he reached out with both hands and caught her as she fell. He pulled her close, holding her tightly against him.

Then he felt her warmth, faint but still there, her breath and her heartbeat.

Ren hugged her even tighter; he wanted to keep her this close forever. For a second, it felt like he had lost everything, but now he got it all back.

He took a deep breath; he felt alive again. His chest was on fire, and he felt pain, but it was okay.

Leaning down, he softly kissed Kestrel in his arms, over and over on her forehead. He gently wiped away the blood from the corner of her mouth.

Ren knew he had to find a healing pod super fast.

The orca turned and started flying toward the nearest healing pod.

Suddenly, Ren remembered something important. He quickly pulled out the ring he had made from his pocket and nervously showed it to Kestrel.

"You’ll say yes, right? Please say yes," he asked her, his voice shaky. "Say anything, just give me a sign."

His voice broke as he buried his face in Kestrel’s hair.

Her eyes stayed closed, and her face was super pale. She couldn’t answer him; she was out cold.

Right then, Ren felt like he was falling apart, like a lost kid. Since he couldn’t get an answer, all he could do was hold onto Kestrel even tighter, feeling totally heartbroken inside.

Sitting on the whale, Ren held Kestrel close while they zoomed towards the healing pod. He kept lowering his head, checking how she was doing again and again. A lot of her tendrils were cut off; she had lost a ton of blood. Her face was super pale, almost like a sheet of paper.

Ren couldn’t stand the thought of what would’ve happened if he was even a second too late. "Would I have found Kestrel’s body just lying there?" That thought alone made his heart hurt so much, he could hardly think it through. But thankfully, she was still breathing, lying weakly in his arms. As long as she was alive, the healing pod could fix her up.

With her psychic injuries, having Ren, her one-and-only alpha, by her side would help her heal. He was ready to spend all the time he had with her, helping her recover in any way she wanted.

From now on, he’d make sure she never had to face danger like this alone. He wanted to be with her every day if he could.

The whale was going super fast, the wind whistling past them. Below them, explosions and gunfire mixed with scary monster sounds.

The fight between humans and the Tower was still on. More folks were joining the rebels to battle the mutants. Some were even gathering to save important resources from inside the Tower.

Fire and smoke were everywhere; a lot of things were meant to be broken in this war.

The Tower was falling apart, and starting today, there would be no safe forever place, no ’paradise.’ On top of these ruins, a new world would be built. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Both alphas and betas would have to get over old ideas if they wanted to live in this new world.

The black and white orca flew out of the smoky mess, carrying both Ren and Kestrel toward the horizon. Sunlight spilled from the bright blue sky, shining on their beat-up bodies.

...

Kestrel had been in the healing pod for a good while. When she woke up, the loud sounds of cannons were gone, but there was still some random gunfire from the streets.

Ren was standing outside the healing pod, looking super tired. His face even had some stubble, showing he hadn’t slept for a long time. For however long she was out, Ren had been right there, watching over her.

Kestrel didn’t ask Ren about how the fight was going. While she was healing, her psychic incarnation had found out a lot of stuff.

Things weren’t as bad as she had thought they’d be.

That day, the Tower came crashing down and the Queen was gone for good. Right after the Queen was gone, the Empire started to break apart way faster than anyone thought it would. Now, besides a few hard-headed nobles who won’t face facts, the Empire government that had been in charge for hundreds of years was no more.

For Kestrel, that was good enough. Her sacrifices, and those of all the warriors in the Tower, hadn’t been for nothing.

The two of them hitched a ride back home on Ren’s orca.

"Hey, what was that thing you were holding before?" On their way back, Kestrel finally broke the silence. She made an "O" shape with her thumb and pointer finger. "I could hear you back then, even though I was too weak to say anything."

Ren’s cheeks turned super red. He looked away and didn’t say a word.

Even though she was all banged up, Kestrel just grinned at him like it was no big deal.

She didn’t know about the pain Ren had gone through, how freaked out he was thinking he might lose her, or how worried he was while he waited outside the healing pod.

"Come on, show me. I’m cool with it," said Kestrel, nudging Ren and lifting her ring finger. "Did you get a ring? Put it on me, right here."

"Hurry, I’m wiped. After the ring, I want some candy."

Finally, blushing like crazy, Ren bowed his head and gave her hand a kiss. He then took her small hand and carefully slid crafted ring onto her ring finger.

The ring was super smooth, and it had Kestrel’s name carved on the inside. It fit like a glove. As he put the ring on her, Ren kept kissing her finger, even getting teary-eyed.

Kestrel held Ren’s big, tough hand. It was rough from handling weapons and had scars, but it was still amazing. Long fingers, light blue veins showing just under the skin—a truly awesome hand.

She looked straight into Ren’s eyes and put another ring on him too.

Not a single word was spoken, but it’s like their minds were talking. Everything they felt was shared, completely.

Up above, the moon was bright, and the sound of the ocean waves was calming.

The tendrils wrapped around the orca, helping it heal.

Kestrel gave Ren’s fingertip a little pinch and sweetly kissed his ring finger.

Their hands locked together, and the sparkle from their rings reflected off each other.

Kestrel used to kind of think that she wasn’t fully human. She felt like maybe she was part monster, part human, or even just a monster, not meant to be in a world with people.

But none of that stuff mattered now. She’d learned about all kinds of feelings, even what love is.

She found love with a human and made a ton of awesome friends. Life in the human community was treating her really well.

There were still gunshots ringing out down below, and inside the Tower, the blood was still flowing.

Riding high on the orca, Kestrel got a glimpse of her home from way off in the distance.

New buds were sprouting on the rose vines climbing the walls, and there was a warm light glowing in the kitchen. Maybe Locky was up to something in there.

As for her life right now, it wasn’t really any more stable than it used to be, since no one knows for sure what’s gonna happen with humans in the future.

But one cool thing was that people’s hearts were free now. They weren’t chained down or controlled by anything anymore.

Kinda like Kestrel. Now, she could hang out with the people she really cared about, and they could care about her too. They could all go home, and be together.

That was all Kestrel cared for.

-THE END-